![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Me-at-the-Great-Salt-Lake.jpg\" "\\"Me")
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Today started out cold yet again.\u00a0 Isn’t this supposed to be summer?\u00a0 Listening to the weather on TV, the western part of the U.S. was experiencing temperature 30 degrees below normal.\u00a0 You would know this would happen on my vacation.\u00a0 And it was upper 80s and 90s back in Chicago!<\/p>\n
We left Park City this morning on our way through\u00a0Salt Lake City.\u00a0 The town has grown since I had come through here in the mid 1990s.\u00a0 And they have had several other changes in their attitudes.\u00a0 In the 90s, we tried to watch TV, but it was heavily censored.\u00a0 Screens were blacked out when content was inappropriate.\u00a0 There were limited channels.\u00a0 Beer was limited in alcohol content and quantity that you could buy.\u00a0 Now, there were more than 25 different religious channels and there were no limits on beer.<\/p>\n
Our visit stop today was to the Great Salt Lake.\u00a0 We rounded the southern edge of the lake until we found the Salt Lake Marina.\u00a0 We could drive to the lake and got out to take pictures.\u00a0 A couple were having their engagement pictures taken out there.\u00a0 Then a set of Japanese tourists arrived.\u00a0 We walked around and took pictures.\u00a0 Rich told us about Antelope Island that we could make out through the fog.\u00a0 The guys had to taste the water to be sure that it was salty, and it was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The drive from the lake out to the Nevada state line was rainy.\u00a0 It was like driving on one very long causeway.\u00a0 There was water and salt flats on the left, right, and in the middle the entire way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Wendover, we were looking for the Bonnieville Salt Flats where they do all of the speed racing over the flats.\u00a0 There was the Bonnieville Salt Flats park.\u00a0 There were signs for the Bonnieville Speedway.\u00a0 So we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions.\u00a0 The man said to go to the end of the road we were on, but not to drive on the flats because the rain had made them soft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Good, we had found the flats!\u00a0 We drove the 5 or so miles out to the flats.\u00a0 We parked.\u00a0 I had Rick take my pictures with the sign.\u00a0 No Rose pose this time.\u00a0 I did my best Vanna White though.\u00a0 It was amazing.\u00a0 It was miles and miles of white salt.\u00a0 The salt around the road had hardened into a type of concrete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While we were standing around taking pictures, a group of Mustang convertibles started arriving.\u00a0 They turned and backed onto the salt flats.\u00a0 There were probably 20 cars.\u00a0 The first guy jumped out in shorts and a tank top.\u00a0 He was waving his hands and shouting something about having arrived.\u00a0 He asked where we were from.\u00a0 We explained from northwest of Chicago.\u00a0 He was amazed and said they would be there next week.<\/p>\n
Turns out, these people were visiting New Zealanders on tour from California over Route 66 to Chicago.\u00a0 They called themselves Kiwis on Tour. When we left, they were kissing the salted ground and taking turns driving their Mustangs out on the salt they could get to and saying they drove on Bonnieville.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Going out of Wendover, we began to climb into the moutains to get over the Silver Mountain range into Nevada.\u00a0\u00a0 At about 6,000 feet, it began to snow!\u00a0 It was a\u00a0 little snow either, it was flying and pretty white conditions.\u00a0 I had Rick take a picture out of the window.\u00a0 We had snow until we got out of the mountains and still had some off and on at the lower elevations.<\/p>\n
It rained and stormed almost the entire way to Winnemucca, our next stop.\u00a0 At one point, the clouds seem to fall down from the sky to touch the ground.\u00a0 It was a very eerie feeling. At least there were no tornadoes.<\/p>\n
In Elko, we stopped for lunch.\u00a0 Once again, the place we chose to eat was closed.\u00a0 We’ve had that kind of luck on this trip.\u00a0 We have a Basque-American diner.\u00a0 The food was OK, but I didn’t see anything special that made it Basque.\u00a0 I guess the Basque came from Spain to look for gold.\u00a0 After finding nothing, they looked around and liked the land.\u00a0 It reminded them of home and they went back to sheep herding.<\/p>\n
Arriving in Winnemucca, we found out that the town was hosting a motorcycle rally.\u00a0 Not too many bikes, but some part of town were closed off for them.\u00a0 I think I counted 6 individual casinos.\u00a0 I forgot that Nevada has major gambling.\u00a0 Even the restaurants have slot machines in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We decided to go to the BBQ place down the street from the hotel, The Pig.\u00a0 It was really good.\u00a0 I had the pulled pork, Rick got the BBQ chicken sandwich, and Rich went for the Smokehouse platter with pork, beef, and chicken.\u00a0 The only problem was the beer.\u00a0 The selection was OK, but Rich found something to go with dinner.<\/p>\n
Tonight, we settled in.\u00a0 I realized I didn’t have Fran’s number to call her to arrange our meeting tomorrow.\u00a0 I guess I’ll have to do that as we drive down tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Most of the pictures exceed the upload limit here.\u00a0 Only a couple of pictures from our day.<\/p>\n